Late Nights, Early Mornings
by Nichol1
Summary: In the course of one night, four young mutants sit awake and think...


**Late Nights, Early Mornings**

**Disclaimer**: All characters are sole property of Marvel Comics and FOX; I make no profit and hold no claim. This story was written for the enjoyment of the writing process. Feedback and archiving are much appreciated, just drop me a line.

**Note**: Takes place immediately following _X2._

***                                                                                                                              ***

            I never used to be afraid of the dark.

            Even when I was a little girl, I never believed in monsters under the bed or in my closet. The darkest night held no terrors for me. I would lie in bed, wrapped in the quilt my granny made me with her own hands and sleep soundly. In the summer, I would crack my window and let the warm Mississippi air drift in, pungent and comforting.

            Now it's 11:00 p.m. and I lay awake, staring at the glowing red letters on my clock. I'm so afraid. Every creak and groan in this old house makes my hair stand on end. My thoughts are consumed by the terrors that do lurk in the night, terrors with names and faces; somehow, those names and faces make them only more terrifying. 

            Stryker. 

            Magneto. 

            Pyro. Oh God, especially Pyro. He's not John anymore, John is gone, there is only Pyro now. I want to ask why, want to rage at him and God and anyone else who will listen. I came here looking for a safe haven. I thought I found it. But now I know how easily safe havens become death traps, how quickly friends become enemies.

            _Now you know, Erik whispers to me. _Now you know what living in fear means. Sanctuary becomes so meaningless when you discover it is only an illusion.__

            _Silence, I tell him, and he does. But only for a time. He'll be back, and his whisperings make more and more sense the longer I listen to them. That's my greatest fear, in the end – that Magneto is right. That there is no freedom, there is no peace, not here nor anywhere else. Not at Xavier's school, not in my circle of friends, not even in my own mind._

            I call myself Rogue. When I chose this name, I was just a stupid teenage girl fleeing the world. I thought it sounded cool and mysterious. Now I think on what it means: a wanderer, solitary and alone. 

            I don't want to be rogue anymore.

***                                                                                                                              ***

            The footsteps in the hall woke me up.

            I sat up in bed, trembling from the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I listened carefully before releasing a deep breath of air. It's just Wolverine (only Rogue calls him Logan) prowling the halls. Ever since the invasion a few weeks back, he's been on constant watch every night.

            I wonder if he can't sleep either.

            No one sleeps well. Not after what happened that night. We were all in bed when the men came with their guns and their darts to take us away. Wolverine says they weren't even federal agents, but mercenaries – something about them carrying FN-P90 submachine guns, but I don't know anything about that stuff. All I know is they kidnapped us and would have experimented on us or killed us or something else equally horrible if the X-Men hadn't come to our rescue.

            "Do you see anything?" I ask my dupe, who's standing beside the window. He shakes his head. Reassured, I fall back into my covers and curl into a ball. Since the attack, I always leave one of my dupes on guard all night to watch out. Maybe we'll have advance warning next time. I glance at the clock. It's almost one o'clock.

            In the bed across the room, Bobby mumbles something I can't understand. He's my roommate and my friend, but since John left he's been like a stranger. He keeps insisting that Magneto mind-controlled John or something, and still refuses to believe otherwise. Everyone's pissed about John leaving us. You can't say his name without Rogue getting angry all over again. "Ah just cain't forgive him, Jamie," she told me once.

            I know I won't. 

***                                                                                                                              ***

            Every night since the attack, Terry cries herself to sleep.

            Tonight was no exception. Her weeping woke me up at a quarter to four. I climbed out of my bed and into hers, and let her snuggle next to me. Sometimes that works, but tonight she's just too jumpy.

            "I saw them, Kitty," she whispers. "I saw them in my dreams. They came into my room and shot me, and I tried to scream but no sound came out. I screamed and screamed for Da and the X-Men, and no one could hear me."

            "Its okay," I try to tell her, but the words sound hollow even to me. None of us feel safe since the attack. It happened weeks ago but it still feels like yesterday. Those men came into our home and kidnapped my friends. If it hadn't been for Wolverine, none of us would've escaped. I sure wasn't much help. When I saw them I ran and ran and ran. 

            Everything's changed. Jubilee and Terry and a bunch of others were injured. John joined Magneto. There's this strange new mutant called Nightcrawler who has a tail and a German accent living at the mansion now. Mr. Summers broods all day and Wolverine stalks the hallways at night. I think he almost wishes someone would attack so he could slice-and-dice them. We all cried for hours when we learned that Doctor Grey died. I miss her so much. She had this way of really understanding your problems and being really interested in everyone. All the kids miss her. The Professor decided to just cancel her classes for this semester because no one could stand the thought of a substitute.

            "It's not okay," Terry tells me. She wipes her puffy red eyes miserably. I hug her closer and blink away my own tears.

            "You're right, it's not. I don't think it'll ever be okay again."

***                                                                                                                              ***

            I am one of the recent arrivals, so I don't know about all the history of this place and stuff, or everything that's happened lately.

            I only came here a couple of weeks ago, along with a flood of others. The Professor tried to explain what happened to all of us. There was this machine that could identify all mutants, and these bad guys used it to target and try to kill us. That's why so many of us, including me, suddenly had the mother of all migraines during algebra class. There were so many mutants outed that hundreds have come to the Xavier mansion in just the last couple of weeks, and more arrive every day. A lot of them are like me: scared and alone and young.

            I kinda knew I was a mutant since last Christmas, or at least I suspected it. I mean, you hear all kinds of stuff on the news these days about mutants going crazy and killing people and the Mutant Registration Act and that kinda thing. So when my hair turned green and my spoon started sticking to my hand, I just put two and two together. The only person I told was my mom, and she helped me pass for awhile. We bought dye to change my hair brown again, and I learned not to touch anything metallic unless it was absolutely necessary. I didn't grow a tail or anything, so I figured I'd be safe. Until those bad guys used a machine and tried to kill me.

            I was just sitting there in class, minding my own business, working on an algebra problem when this pain hit that was so bad I thought my head was gonna split in two. I started screaming and passed out. When I came to, my brain was throbbing and I learned that I'd blown out the intercom system, shorted out the electricity and torn all my classmate's pencils apart. Lead is metallic, you know. 

            That's why I came here. The ones who were here before me, like Jubilee and Bobby and Rogue, really worked hard to make me feel at home, even though Rogue was a little scared of my powers at first.

            "You're… not related t'Magneto, are ya?" she asked me once.

            "Huh?" I replied intelligently. "What's a magneto?"

            "He's a mutant like us, but a bad guy," Rogue explained. "He has powers like yours. Magnetism, controls metals, that kinda thing."

            That was the first time I'd ever heard of Magneto. I laughed it off, told Rogue there was no way we were related, but I didn't tell her the whole truth. I'm adopted, you see. For all I know, this Magneto guy could be my grandfather or my uncle or even my real father. But I don't think anyone needs to know. The world has enough reasons to hate me without adding on maybe being related to a notorious mutant terrorist.

            It's eight a.m. and I'm fixing my hair in the bathroom when Jubilee comes in to put on some fresh lipstick. I'm so glad I can finally ditch the dye. I love my green hair.

            "Hey Lorna," Jubilee checks her watch. "We're late for biology class." She smacks her gum noisily as I run to catch up.

            Just another day at Mutant High.

The End.

**Author's Note: **In case anyone was confused, POV #1 was Rogue. POV #2 was Jamie Maddrox, aka Multiple Man, and POV #3 was Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat. POV #4 was Lorna Dane, aka Polaris.


End file.
